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‘Why don’t you meet me at our usual café in half an hour?’ she suggested. ‘The one with Princess Trudy and the crappucinos? We’ll look through the best of the offers. Go and order the bacon butties.’

She didn’t have to ask him twice. With the promise of lucrative deals and meat, he was soon scurrying out of the apartment. Though this time, from behind the privacy of the almost closed blinds, she was watching him. Keeping him in view as he walked along the wharf, Alyssa tapped out a message to @whoami23456:

@alyssaheart_thelovecoach – This is the last chance I’ll give you to come clean. Who are you and why are you doing this? I’m guessing it was you who leaked the false rumours about me walking out on the ’Appy Together gig in a blaze of fury.

As she sent the message, her stomach was in knots. She couldn’t tell whether she was desperate for her suspicions to be right – or wrong. If they were right, she could bloody well fix this. She could put this person in their place, once and for all, and she could take back control of her life. But that would also mean that someone she had trusted had cruelly tricked her. She’d confided in them, taken shelter under their conniving little wing, and had allowed herself to be completely duped. It nearly didn’t bear thinking about.

Yet if she was wrong, then she was back to being a desperate woman without a plan.

Her eyes were trained on Rufus, and as he stopped and put a hand on his pocket, she felt like her heart had stopped too. He pulled out his phone and checked the screen. His back was to her, so she couldn’t see the look on his face.

But she could see from her own phone screen that her message had been opened.

Then Rufus gave a quick glance up towards the apartment windows. She ducked back slightly, even though she was sure he wouldn’t be able to see her through the slightest crack in the blinds. Then he looked back at his screen and began tapping. Three dots appeared on her screen to show her that whoami was typing. Urgh. She held her breath. Sure enough, a message came through to her. Rufus gave a shifty look around, then continued on his walk.

Steeling herself, she checked the message. Just as she’d suspected, it was from the troll – at the exact same time she’d seen Rufus on his phone. Having spent the last few days with him, she hadn’t seen him receive many messages. And when he did, he usually looked gloaty rather than secretive.

@whoami23456 – As Bryan Adams would say – Everything I Do, I Do It For You. If you knew who I was, you might even thank me.

Worse luck for him, she did now know who he was. And it was foolish of him to make Bryan Adams references when she’d seen his scratched CDs and that collection of creepy celebrity dolls. Now she knew who it was, she knew what she had to do.